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FUTURE FACES IN THE WORLD OF FASHION, MUSIC, FILMS AND THE ARTS.

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Will Poulter
After playing a string of satirical characters in School of Comedy, the school terror in Son of Rambow and the irksome Eustace Scrubb in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Will tackles his most serious role to date as the emotionally-torn Dean, forced into adulthood after being abandoned by his parents in Wild Bill. But Will is nothing like the hardheaded boy overcoming daddy problems, or any of his past characters for that matter. I sat down with Will— all genuine smiles and impeccable manners—to talk about his lucky start and new filmin between hurried bites of chicken and rice.
What are you up to right now?
At the moment I’m just training and eating a lot for a role that starts in April, unfortunately I can’t say what that is yet. I’m also in The Smiths project called “Shoplifters Of The World.” It’s starting in June and I’m really excited to be part of that. Otherwise, just promoting Wild Bill; I’m really passionate about the film and absolutely love it.

How did you get into acting?
I went to a normal day school in West London and our drama department was a third of the size of this room, about the size of a public toilet. We had this assembly room which we used as our theatre and we had two really passionate drama teaches who were really enthusiastic about getting kids on stage at a young age. Even though we didn’t have the most incredible space, supporting the performing arts was part of the school ethos. Then an agent came to our school casting Son of Rambo and that was the first film role I ever got. Out of school I did School of Comedy, which was a sketch comedy show started by my drama teacher Laura Lawson. We started off doing school fairs and assemblies, and then we took it to theatres above pubs and ended up at Edinburgh Festival. From there it developed into a TV series that ran for two series.
So this DIY sketch comedy turns into a big television series. How unexpected was that?
Yeah, really weird. This little TV series— it was on before Skins— we were literally an after school club. And it developed into this comedy series and I was just really lucky to be part of it.
And how old were you then?
I started going to the club when I was about nine or ten, and stopped when I was about sixteen. It was part of my childhood, really close to my heart and I’m sad it’s over but pleased to move on to other things.
Let’s talk about the new film, Wild Bill. What is it about?
Wild Bill is a family story about a man who comes back after eight years in prison to find his two kids living alone, his sixteen-year-old son Dean and eleven-year-old son Jimmy. It’s about whether he’s going to fulfill his role as a father and regain contact with is kids or whether he’s going to regress and go back to the world of crime that got him in trouble in the first place. And it’s a story about this unlikely character building a family again and making amends for his mistakes and a father who gets a second chance and an unlikely dynamic develops as a result of that.
What is your character like?
Dean is a character who I describe as wise beyond his years. He’s been forced into the roll of an adult. He’s a father figure to Jimmy, his younger brother. He’s been forced to pack away a lot of the emotional pain he has from being abandoned by his mom and dad and fill the shoes of a man. From a financial point of view, he’s the provider, emotionally he’s the only support that Jimmy has, so it’s interesting to me when Bill comes back into his life because it sort of turns everything upside down again. Dean is forced to confront the pain and emotions he tried to ignore because his dad is a stimulus for that. And Bill and Dean are both forced to confront their past. For Dean it’s to confront his childhood and emotional history while Bill is forced to confront his responsibilities as an adult and they both end up growing up and looking at each other in the eyes as men, which is a cool conclusion without giving away too much.

It sounds like a pretty heavy role. How did you get into character? Did you relate to Dean at all?
It’s the most emotionally intense role I’ve ever done. It’s a drama and most of my experience has been in comedy, but this is really where my passion lies. I was keen to connect with the character as strongly as possible, as you do with any acting task. I was lucky to get a lot of support from Dexter and work with a lot of experienced actors, so I was very grateful.
Were you intimidated at all starting out?
Yeah, I was terrified. I had a lot of sleepless nights. I was very nervous, certainly, especially since Wild Bill was the worst audition I’d ever done. I really struggled with the character. It kept me awake at night and I came home most days with a headache like you wouldn’t believe, but I loved that experience and the fact that it was so challenging was why I loved it. It was addictive in that sense, because you want to solve the character and you can’t rest until you have.
Why was it your worst audition?
My performance was just so bad! I was embarrassed. It was really weird, after the audition Dexter said, “Alright, well I think we’ll go to work.” And I didn’t know if he meant with me… and that was him sort of offering me the role and it took me by surprise because I thought I totally messed it up. I’m very grateful he entrusted me with that responsibility, because to give a young inexperienced actor that role was quite brave of him.
From the trailer it looks like there’s a bit of an on-screen romance?
Yeah, there’s some romance. In a lot of ways the film is quite bleak and potentially depressing but relationships like that and moments of comedy will hopefully stop audience members from leaving the cinema crying. Steph, the character in the romance, is played brilliantly by Charlotte Spencer. It’s a bit nerve-wracking doing those scenes in front of twenty guys in a tiny room when you’ve got your shirt off and you’re trying to make it look natural and all you can think about is the fact that there’s twenty guys with sound equipment watching you.
Was there a moment when you realized you wanted to do this for a living?
It was really the only thing I loved, the only thing in life I really cared about. When you’re that age and you’re struggling- I really struggled with academia- it’s easy to give up if you have no passion or interest. I kind of escaped from the classroom where I felt really alien to acting which felt really natural. It’s all I really want to do, so if I don’t make it I’ll be gutted. Fingers crossed.
Wild Bill hits cinemas March 23rd
Words By Natalee Ranii-Dropcho
Photography By Luc Coiffait

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Miike Snow - Happy To You Review
If Miike Snow is a playground, we are very happy children. After touring for eighteen months and selling over 200,000 copies of the self-titled debut, the trio are back with their sophomore offering, this time made in Stockholm. Like their mythical Jackalope insignia, Happy To You springs from the world of fantasy in a bright merry-go-round of electronics.
Enter the Joker’s Lair, sends you down the slide of digital distortion through fanciful beats and drawn out synths. Add the patter of snares in The Wave with the brass and disco-friendly chorus of Paddling Out and you have a recipe for dance anthems. Things get a little witchy in Black Tin Box, where Lykke Li lends her haunting voice to the trance of dirty synths and steel drums. There’s even a ballad, although a dark one. If it sounds a little all over the place you’re not delusional, but the seesaw shifts take the album out of commercial territory and into something you can listen to the whole way through.
A refreshing departure from their accidental pop hits overplayed by everyone, Happy To You is a multidimensional orchestra of electronics that will keep you swinging well after dark.
Words by Natalee Ranii-Dropcho

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Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan
Key figure of the Arte Povera group, Alighiero Boetti (1940 – 1994) was one of the most influential Italian artist. Characterised by the use of simple materials, Boetti’s work mainly engaged with the changing geopolitical situation of his time.
Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan at Tate Modern highlights Boetti’s engagement with geopolitics and his travels to Ethiopia, Guatemala and Afghanistan, whilst exploring his collaboration with young people and exiled Afghans. Among the works on display are Mappa of 1971, a large embroidered map of the world, Io che Prendo il Sole a Torino, a self-image made of more than a hundred lumps of concrete, the embroideries The Thousand Longest Rivers in the World 1976-78 and The Hour Tree 1979.
Until May 27th at Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG.
Words by Jacopo Nuvolari

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Carbon Life at The Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is getting a shot of pop with Carbon Life, a collaboration between Wayne McGregor of The Royal Ballet, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt of Miike Snow. The nine song ballet will delve into the collective unconscious and feature live performances from Boy George, Alison Mosshart of the Kills, Jonny Pierce of The Drums, Wale and Hero Fisher, with three songs orchestrated by Rufus Wainwright. For all you fashion fiends out there, Gareth Pugh is designing the costumes. Ticket start at £3, but you’ll have to click fast to nab a seat at this triple bill with New Scarlett and Polyphonia. Last time we checked, we were number 374 in the online queue…
New Scarlett/Polyphonia/Carbon Life runs 5 April 2012 to 23 April 2012. For more information, visit http://www.roh.org.uk/
Words by Natalee Ranii-Dropcho

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Monsta
Monsta producers Rufio and Rocky – also known as Pegasus – first came together through a mutual love of jazz-fusion while in Music College. Since then, they worked with a series of major artists including Labrinth and Michael Kiwanuka, who together with Rufio once played together in a jazz fusion band.
Now teaming up frontman Bryn Christopher to form Monsta, the group spare some moments in between concocting new tracks to chat about performing live, their impending single release, not to mention their frequent visits to the Thai takeaway across the road and the strange method they have for packaging prawn crackers…

Your debut single, Holdin On, is coming out early next month. How are you guys feeling about it?
Well we wanted to put something out and it’s really nice to make it more official. We think it gives it all more impact rather than letting it sift out gradually.

How long have you guys been in the studio for now?
Probably around a year and a half now. It started with just Rocky and I, but then we were introduced… Well, I guess we found Bryn! We loosely thought we could do something with a distinctive male voice and when we started working with Bryn it really felt like he was pushing us to try new things. It’s pretty different too as we’ve just been in the studio all the time, it’s not like we’ve grown up together constantly playing in our mum’s garage or something.
Is it a refreshing change working with a vocalist?
Yeah, definitely. Rocky and I have played in bands before but this is different. There’s like a complete flip when you play live. Traditionally in band, you play live and it’s cool and then you have to make a record and invariably you want to capture the same sort of energy and it’s difficult. In the studio you don’t have hundreds of sweaty people jumping around to your music! So with Monsta, the tracks are done and they are already laced with excitement and elation.
How exactly do your live performances work?
Well we play live instruments… Yeah, we try to play pretty much everything. Rufio is like an octopus; he has secret arms come out from nowhere when we’re playing! We (Rufio and Rocky) don’t sing so we have some backing vocals recorded if it’s necessary. And, you know, there’s some swoosy sounds too!

Your shows have been pretty successful so far though.
Yeah it’s been great. People seem intrigued by what we’re doing. Hopefully what we do will go well when we do the stadium tour! Between gigs you feel as if you have this pent up energy and releasing it is great. You forget how different it is playing live; it’s really loud! We hadn’t played together in so long and Bryn was obviously ready so we had to pull it together quickly. We were all “where are the keys? Where are the drums!”
The juxtaposition of Bryn’s booming vocals next to the big basslines and slick production works in completely fluidly. Do you make the music first and then add vocals or is it done concurrently?
Well musically we usually have some sort of idea first. Even if it’s just a synth lick or a drum thing. We’ll put something together and then play it to Bryn. We just sit and wait, as we don’t know what’s going to happen, as he’s a man of few words. Then he’ll just go up to the microphone and unleash! Though we have written songs with the piano too. We like to create an initial atmosphere and then build around that.
What about lyrically?
The initial music usually leads to the lyrics. Sometimes it can even be the sounds of the words and how it fits in with the melodies. It can sound quite natural. Sometimes the lyrics linger in your mind and when you listen back to the track it just comes out.
Your tracks are quite diverse in style but they manage to retain your identity. Will the album continue this trend or do you want to pin down more of a specific sound?
When you’re making the tracks you are so unaware of it; we’re making the tracks so we feel it’s the same! The diversity isn’t a reaction; we are just interested in so many different genres. It’s exciting because we can go off in any direction we want. We don’t feel like we are constrained to any one kind of music. You get less stressed out working this way too. You don’t have any preconceptions going into writing either, as inevitably you’d just end up writing really similar songs.

Bryn, how do you find working with Rufio and Rocky?
It’s wicked. I have quite a powerful voice and their tracks are so heavy that it manages to balance my voice out. It’s great working with them because it feels like there is no limit to what I can do melody wise, if it’s pop or RnB or whatever. As musicians, they’re really talented so when playing live it feels like there is an orchestra on stage with me! It makes me up my game. It’s always nice to take a track to the piano and see how it works as a barebones piece too.
You’re releasing the single on your own label. Do you have any aspirations to be signed by a big label or is it even a priority at all?
We aren’t anti-label or anything but it’s important to us that we have our own creations; tha t the thing we create is what we really wanted. It’s our passion and we really want to get it out there. If someone really good comes along and wants to help us then great! You can get in the position when you’re hyped up with a track and it’s alive then the label gets involved and it can be tough. Labels can obviously help get you to great places and with distribution of course but we just want to see what happens.

Are you thinking about the album at the moment?

We’ve always been thinking about it, we reckon it could be like eighty songs at this rate! We have so many songs in the can and your favourite is always the newest one you’ve made! We feel like we have the content but we’re still making new tracks all the time. We want to see how it develops though, we’re going to let the single come out and see how that goes.

What’s coming up for you?

We have the show at the Water Rats coming up which is going to be great. We’re also going to be playing some festivals, which is exciting. Getting the opportunity to play festivals when we are so new is great and it’s really nice to be building up momentum behind the band.

Holdin On is out April 9th

Words by Dean Lawson

Photography By Natalee Ranii-Dropcho

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